


Rome, Season 1, Episode 9, Utica

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Rome (TV 2005)
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s01e09 Utica, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 01, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:08:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24939577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and the rest of the series. Complete.





	Rome, Season 1, Episode 9, Utica

Open in Africa, after the battle of Thapsus.

Scipio suggests they leave, and Cato babbles about elephants always standing until they’re ready to die.

This isn’t true.

Finally, Scipio convinces Cato to come along.

Scipio, Cato, and their men break into an abandoned house. Asking for a knife, Cato urges Scipio to make peace with Caesar. Unable to see the signs, Scipio declares he’ll do as Cato does.

Darkly laughing, Cato suggests Scipio not do so. Taking the knife, he says, “If you’ll excuse me, I need to urinate.”

Then, he kills himself.

At Cato’s funeral, Scipio orders the head soldier to send the others away. After they leave, he kneels down. “Do it, now. Cut deep, boy.”

Unsheathing a dagger, the soldier puts his hand on Scipio’s shoulder. “Goodbye, sir.” Slitting his throat, he gently lowers the body to the ground.

In Rome, Caesar and Brutus are at a play satirising Cato and Scipio. Atia and her slave are also present. When it’s over, Caesar claps. Brutus doesn’t.

The next day, Pullo and Vorenus are walking through the city, and numerous people pat them.

They get to the courtyard, and Vorenus sees Niobe with her back turned. His daughters rush to greet him. Niobe turns. Thankfully, no one needed their baby held for a moment, or else she’d really be screwed.

Promising his daughters he’s home for good, he kisses Niobe.

Inside, everything is more decorated, and there are slaves wandering about. Niobe fills him in on her and Lyde co-running the butcher shop together before quickly getting him on the bed to straddle him.

Outside, Pullo happily picks Eirene up. She tells him in whatever language they speak it’s good to see him. The actress says it in English, but to quote Pullo, “You speak our words.”

There’s a moment of awkwardness, and she asks if she can get him anything. Asking for some water, he retrieves a bracelet from his stuff for her.

Normally, I’d complain about the unrealistic development of his feelings towards her, but this fits Pullo’s character perfectly. I don’t know what causes him to adopt certain people, but he does. He’s Vorenus’s puppy, he has genuine respect and fondness for Octavian, and he’s attached to Eirene.

In the square, the newsreader announces there’s to be a festival soon. He does a commercial for some bread and cakes. Heh.

Meanwhile, Timon is escorting Octavian home. It’s established Octavian has been gone for two years, and he’s curious whether Atia and Timon are still sleeping together. They arrive at the Julii home, and Atia and Octavia both hug him. Atia tells Timon she’ll see him later.

At the Junii home, Brutus tries to get his mother to get a move on, and she’s disdainful of him for asking for mercy from Caesar and trying to repay all Caesar’s done with simple actions such as accepting a dinner invitation. Tearfully, he tells her he’s not proud of himself, and, “In lieu of a noble suicide, you shall have to be content with that.”

There’s a moment she considers it. She knows how much it would hurt Caesar. I don’t know whether love for her son or her deciding this wouldn’t be revenge enough stops her from telling her son to do it. She knows he would.

Instead, she calls for her shawl, and no longer certain of anything, he begs her not to come. She insists on going, and he says, “Perhaps, it will do you good to see him. See that he is just a man. The loss of his affection is not worth this endless raging sorrow.”

Brutus knows he’s incomplete. He knows he’d take his own life if his mother demanded it of him, and on some level, he realises his emotional dependence on her to the extent he fully places her above himself isn’t good. Here, he’s seeing her do something similar. She’s letting Caesar dictate her life and emotions. She’s stuck in depression and anger and unable to move on.

Though Brutus isn’t in a hurry to try to break free, he desperately wants her to do so. He loves her, and on this level, it’s in a pure, healthy form. He just wants her to be happy and healthy.

She insists her objection to Caesar is purely political, not personal.

The party is at Atia’s. Caesar is talking, and the Junii family appears. Realising Servilia is wearing a mourning shawl, Atia comments on its prettiness. Servilia responds a great many have died.

Spotting Octavian, Brutus goes over to greet him. Servilia and Octavia share a look.

Later, Caesar describes giraffes. Bringing up all the work he has do to help the Republic, he asks what Octavian would do. Octavian lays out his plan of helping the economy and installing new Senators he can be sure are loyal. Brutus takes offence, and calling Brutus a man of honour, Octavian declares he believes Brutus’s capitulation to be sincere.

Caesar decides to appoint Octavian to pontiff. Octavian tries to protest, but everyone is determined he’s going to accept the position.

Servilia makes a barbed implication about her and Caesar’s past relationship.

Meanwhile, Vorenus is using building blocks to tell his daughters plus a little boy a battle story. I don’t know if the little boy is the slave or baby Lucius.

Pullo is nearby carving something when he sees Eirene fetch a pail of water. He insists on delivering it despite Eirene’s protests Niobe will be angry.

Vorenus scares the little boy by knocking the building blocks over. To his credit, he tries to comfort the boy, but the little one runs off. There’s a continuity goof where the blocks are suddenly restacked.

Appearing, Niobe exposits it’s been a month. She tries to subtly hint Vorenus needs to get a job.

He’s resistant to becoming a shopkeeper.

The next scene has him working as Pullo hangs about. He tries to take a break, but Lyde isn’t having this.

Then, they notice a man being shoved around. The shoving men are about to cut off the man’s nose, but Vorenus stands up to them, although, it’s mainly because what they’re doing is bad for business. They start to insult him, and Pullo grabs a cleaver.

Vorenus turns, and one of the men spits on him. Vorenus strikes one of them. The man says Vorenus is dead. Then, seeing Pullo casually standing in the background with the cleaver at the ready, he declares they’re both dead.

Normally, I’d object, since Pullo didn’t technically do anything to help Vorenus or hinder them, but if Pullo wasn’t included in the death threat, he’d be not only be angry, he’d be hurt.

They leave, and Lyde says those were Erastes’s men.

She couldn’t have grabbed him to say something before he went over to them?

The next scene has Niobe explaining Erastes has become powerful. Vorenus doesn’t care. He goes on about his own high status, including the fact, “Caesar himself gave me a horse.”

There’s a knock at the door, and kneeling, the man Vorenus saved is holding up a loaf of bread. “Thank you, sir.”

At Servilia’s, she and Octavia are actually weaving. Octavia brings up the dinner. “I wish you didn’t care for him so much.”

Servilia’s response is, “I wish I didn’t care for you so much.”

If someone said this to me as anything but a clear joke, I’d be offended and hurt, but Octavia likes the answer, and they kiss.

They talk about Octavian, and Octavia brings up Caesar supposedly being a paedophile and taking advantage of her brother. When she gets to the part where Octavian denied it and said something about a serious affliction, Servilia is interested. Wanting to know what deity has cursed Caesar, she insists Octavia needs to find out for her.

Going on about how she’s never lied to Octavia, Servilia says Caesar still has some terrible hold over her.

Because she’s letting him. Caesar hit her three times. She is a victim of abuse, and I’m honestly not trying to deny or minimise this. However, Caesar has been leaving her alone since then. They’ve had minimal contact, he hasn’t emotionally or physically threatened her, and though he does hang out with Brutus a lot, he’s clearly not using him as a way to hurt or control her. The only control Caesar has over her life, the only way he’s able to hurt her, is through the fact she’s continually obsessing over him.

Beside all this, this isn’t about getting some form of justice. If she wanted it, she would tell Brutus what happened. If he’s willing to kill himself to make her happy, he’d certainly do something about the man who slapped and twice backhanded his mother.

Octavia agrees to talk to Octavian if it’ll make Servilia happy.

Later, Octavian is reading up in preparation for his pontiff role. Octavia complains she’s bored, and he offers to read to her. His reading choice is a love poem.

Octavia isn’t impressed, and based on Octavian’s reaction, I get the feeling he was the one who wrote the poem. Asking him to tell her a secret, she brings up Caesar’s affliction. Expressing his belief in a prime mover, Octavian disregards the possibility of countless deities. Octavia accuses him of not trusting her, and he responds, “I do trust you. You’re my dearest friend.”

This is such a sad line. After this episode, he’s never, with good reason, as open with her.

Octavian shares what he knows of the Vorenii family drama and the fact he helped kill Evander.

Over in the Vorenii courtyard, Eirene bathes Pullo as Niobe and Vorena E work on something. Erastes appears, and wrapping a towel around his waist, Pullo grabs a knife. Niobe tries to shield Vorena E.

At Erastes’s yelling, Vorenus appears. Erastes orders Vorenus to come to the forum at a certain time, kneel down, and kiss Erastes’s feet, or Erastes will come kill him, rape Niobe and the girls, and burn down the complex, not necessarily in this order.

Pullo has no patience for this, but stopping him, Vorenus orders Erastes to leave.

Meanwhile, Servilia doesn’t care about the Vorenii family drama. She suggests Octavia sleep with Octavian to get the information.

Her emotional manipulation and abuse is so much worse than what Caesar did. I’m not condoning a man hitting a woman; I’m just making a comparison. He didn’t do permanent physical damage, and since then, he’s left her alone. Servilia is like those sleazy men who manage to convince their girlfriends to enter into prostitution.

She even chose another woman to further her ability to hold all the power. Due to the stigma of lesbian relationships back then, no one knows about it, and therefore, no one has a chance of potentially seeing the signs.

Octavia does briefly realise this. “You call this love?”

She starts to leave, but Servilia announces Atia killed Glabius. Servilia explains her people caught one of Timon’s men.

Unfortunately, later, instead of realising, if Servilia cared for her, she would have told her before now, Octavia complies with further helping Servilia.

At the forum, Erastes waits.

Meanwhile, Vorena E begs her mother to come with them. Insisting on staying, Niobe tells her daughters, in the case of her death, to stay in the country with Lyde and never come back to the city. She promises their cousins will find them handsome farmers to marry.

The girls go to pray at the shrine, and Lyde quietly asks Niobe to beg Vorenus to do what Erastes wants. Niobe refuses.

Over at the shrine, Vorenus is kneeling down with the girls. He tells them to remember the importance of the Vorenii name and the fact he and Niobe love them.

They leave.

Pullo continues sharpening his knife, and Niobe orders Eirene to clean the table. Vorenus begs Niobe to go with the others, and she refuses.

This is the first fully clear instance of Pullo being part of the Vorenii clan. Before now, he’s been Vorenus’s best friend and involved himself in Vorenii family problems, but here, he’s free to leave. Erastes said nothing about him. He could leave, or he could go with Lyde and the others to protect them. However, he’s staying. Vorenus is the head of the family, and he’s going to protect him and help him protect the family name.

Meanwhile, Erastes realises Vorenus isn’t coming.

Back to the Vorenii’s, the men have weapons laid out as Niobe lights candles and Eirene bustles around. Pullo begins hiding the weapons around the courtyard.

Erastes strides through.

Pullo is eating, and Vorenus and Niobe kiss. They hear someone approaching. Pullo orders Eirene to run and hide. Instead, she stands behind the table with Niobe. Pullo stands in front of them, and Vorenus stands near the entrance.

It turns out to be Caesar, though, and Vorenus immediately puts the weapons he was holding on the ground.

Outside, finding the guards surrounding the entrance, Erastes walks away.

Inside the Vorenii house, Caesar compliments Niobe’s beauty, and she has an adorable smile on her face. Vorenus nudges her, and she rushes over to kneel down in front of Caesar.

Caesar’s look of, ‘Oh, not this again,’ amuses me, but his tone is kind when he tells her to rise.

Vorenus offers Caesar something to drink. Accepting, Caesar orders Vorenus to sit. He offers him a position of magistrate.

After assuring Caesar how honoured he is by his visit, Vorenus respectfully declines, and Niobe wants to kill her husband with the jug she’s holding. Caesar calmly summarises Vorenus still disapproves of his actions.

Vorenus says his politics and Caesar’s are different. He can’t speak for Caesar if it means speaking against his conscience. Caesar counters he got his powers of dictatorship legally and he fully intends to return Rome to the way it was during the golden age as soon as he can. At Niobe’s look, Vorenus quietly sighs.

Outside, Caesar and Vorenus appear. Caesar holds up Vorenus’s arm.

Clapping, Pullo has a subtle look on his face showing he’s quickly realising the implications of this.

Caesar hugs Vorenus, and Pullo leaves the crowd.

At the Julii home, Octavia watches her mother. Going to Octavian’s room, she wanders around. Aside from asking if she’s looking for anything in particular, he doesn’t care. She asks if he has anything comical, and he answers in the negative. Dismissing the slave fanning Octavian, she complains about him making eyes at her. Suggesting she get Castor to beat him, he starts to send for another fanner.

Octavia says it’s nice to be alone. Uncomfortable, knowing something has changed and sensing danger, he agrees. When she urges him to come lie down with her, he asks, “Why?”

She answers she’d like it, and resisting, he answers her question of why not with, “I can think of several reasons.”

She brings up the fact he used to come sleep with her when he was little.

This only adds the horribleness of this situation. Most little kids go to a parent, but either his turned him away, or he automatically went to Octavia due to placing her in a more parental rather than sibling role. It’s bad enough when siblings commit major breaches of trust, but it’s often worse when parental figures do it.

Then, he makes a decision. “I’m not scared, now.” He walks over to the bed.

If she’s going to hurt him, he’s going to let her.

She says something about pretending, and he refuses. Claiming embarrassment, she says, “I thought you wanted me.”

He doesn’t answer.

Continuing, she says, as a man, he can take what he wants. Giving him a non-sisterly kiss, she pulls him down on the bed.

A lack of no doesn’t mean something isn’t sexual abuse. A lack of no doesn’t mean there’s a clear yes.

She’s his big sister. There have been possible signs Octavian holds less-than-platonic feelings for Octavia, and arguments have been made for both sides on the matter. The important thing is, though, whether he has any incestuous feelings or not, he loves and trusts her. He’s a thirteen-year-old child who depends on her for emotional support, and she’s an adult who is using this to take both physical and emotional advantage of him in one of the worst ways an adult can hurt a child.

In a way, she’s a victim, too, but once a person or character crosses certain lines, I stop feeling compassion for them.

Later, when they’re lying in bed, she says, “Brother, tell me something.”

“Ah.”

“What do you mean, ‘ah’?

“Now comes the price.”

“What do you mean?”

He points out she knows seducing her brother is wrong. She answers they’re above such societal conventions.

Never mind incest, when it comes to an adult using a teenager’s emotional attachment to her to get him into bed, there are damn good reasons there are social and legal conventions against it.

Octavian answers incest isn’t just wrong a convention, it’s wrong in essence. He points out the dangers of inbreeding.

Interestingly, studies have shown this is a misconception. Children of incest usually have the same risk of defects as other children. It’s when families continually interbred problems appear.

Octavia gets upset, and he says it’s unlikely he got her pregnant. Then, he continues he knows she had some reason other than lust for doing this. He posits she’ll repeat her inquires about Caesar.

Breaking down, Octavia repeatedly wonders, “What have I done?”

Octavian hesitates before reaching over. Gently touching her shoulder, he asks, “What have you done? Tell me?”

Outside, Atia’s slave spies on them.

Putting her hand on Octavian’s, Octavia asks him to promise not to tell their mother.

The next day, Niobe and Eirene help Vorenus dress in his white toga.

“You look like laundry,” is Pullo’s opinion.

He reaches out, but Niobe says, “You’ll dirty it.” He pours some wine, and Niobe holds a mirror up for Vorenus.

At the Julii house, Atia ignores Octavian’s pleas to calm down as she advances on Octavia with a whip. He physically stops her from hurting his sister, and then, despite announcing she won’t strike him anymore, he makes no move to protect himself when she does.

She yells at him for sleeping with Octavia. Grabbing the whip, Octavia orders Atia to be quiet.

Atia correctly points out, “You wouldn’t dare.”

Octavia drops the whip, and they sit down on a bench. Octavian stays on the ground. Octavia brings up Glabius and Servilia catching one of Timon’s men.

“And where is this man? Did you speak to him,” Atia demands. Seeing the answer, she continues, “Look at me. I swear on the spirits of my ancestors, on the stone of Jupiter, I did not kill your husband.”

Insisting Servilia lied to turn Octavia against her, Atia hugs her.

During the night, in the courtyard, Pullo drunkenly calls for Eirene. She appears, and he orders her to sit down to have a drink with him. He babbles about his mother. She was a slave, and Eirene resembles her physically.

Well, it’s official: The Tudors doesn’t hold a candle to the sexual dysfunction found on this show.

He goes on a rant about his unknown father. Someone yells for him to be quiet, and he yells back profanities at them.

Sitting back down, he ignores Eirene’s increasing discomfort. Eventually, ordering her to remove her dress, he kisses her.

It doesn’t show how far this goes, but it needs to be said: A free person having sex with a known slave is rape.

The next day, Timon is talking to a friend. The friend wonders about the hat Timon is wearing, and Timon wonders what kind of Jew his friend is to not realise it’s Yom Kippur.

They watch when the men carrying Servilia’s liter are attacked. As Servilia prays, Atia’s slave cuts some off her hair, and her dress is lowered below her stomach. Realisation of who’s behind this is evident on Timon’s face, and he looks sick.

Maybe, Servilia being a woman makes this different to him, but considering he killed someone on Atia’s orders, this seems out of place.

The episode ends with a curled up Servilia covering herself with her dress.

Fin.


End file.
